Hoy Ka Thai Noodle - Monterey Park, CA

Guess what? It's restaurant review time! This time around we are going to a humble Thai restaurant in Monterey Park. This place opened up just recently, this year, I believe. Sister S and Sister K had been talking non-stop about this place for a few months before I eventually went there, which so happened to be the day before I ran the Malibu Marathon. There was nothing special about the date itself, I just so happened to be hungry after picking up my bib and timing chip at the race expo in Zuma Beach and it so happened to be lunch time. I have to say I was really excited to go when they suggested this place. I was lucky that they remembered that I had wanted to try this place but the opportunity had never came up because I live in the OC and only visit that area a few times a month. I hadn't been this excited to go to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a long time. Mainly because my sisters know my taste buds pretty well so I was sure I was going to like this place.

The restaurant itself is located in the back corner of a small U-Shaped strip mall. I can tell this place gets crazy with people trying to find parking during regular meal hours but I think we had just missed that since it was almost 2pm. It was clean when we walked in and being late in the day, we got a table right away. The prices are reasonable and my brother-in-law tells me that the food is Thai style home cooking. This is not your regular tom yum/pad thai joint. It is so much more! Lookin' forward to going back already. I will post more finds when I go back.

I'm very sorry but I cannot remember what this dish was called but it is a pork sausage appetizer with roasted whole peanuts, sliced raw ginger, raw cabbage leaves for wrapping and whole green chilies.

Again, not sure of the exact name of this dish but it is fried pork belly stir fried with chopped green beans, chillies and green onions. This dish is amazing!

This dish I actually remember. It is the Hoy Ka Noodle, named after the restaurant. I know, I am such a good food blogger...NOT! It is a flat-rice-noodle soup in a fish sauce type broth with, ground pork balls, fish balls, sliced cooked liver, ground peanuts, chashu, green onions and what seems like a little-bit-of-everything. The broth is really flavorful! Very comforting and delicious in my opinion.

Hoy Ka Thai Noodle
230 N. Garfield Ave #D12
(Garfield Garden Plaza)
Monterey Park, CA 91754

As I'd mentioned this was the day before the Malibu Marathon, so I was staying at Sister S's place since it was much closer to the race and she had so kindly agreed to drive me to the start the next morning. I ended making some random pasta, Italian sausage, and asparagus dish for everyone as my carbo load meal. Then we had a random dessert pig-out. Ok, that didn't sound too healthy. We sampled different desserts! Good thing I was running the next day! :D

Some tea to go with dessert.

Autumn bouquet!

Random pasta dinner-a-la-me!

Dessert 1: Gingerbread men from Trader Joe's!!

Dessert 2: Pumpkin Pie from Marie Calendar's

Dessert 3: Peanut butter cookies from Trader Joe's

Needed more tea after all that dessert! Then it was off to bed because I had a marathon to run the next day.